Writing skills goal of new LAS requirement
By Pat Mcrvean
Staff Writer	%
An emphasis on the method of teaching writing skills will be the main goal ofthe new Composition 101 classes required of all freshmen in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences (LAS) beginning in two or three semesters.
Course curriculum recommendations will be submitted to the University Curriculum Committee by the school and could become effective in the spring or fall of 1978.
Currently, to fulfill the general education requirement, freshmen have their choice of taking classes in the departments of classics, English, comparative literature, cinema, linguistics and Slavic languages.
But. in a major revision plan announced last week by John Marburger. dean of LAS. all freshmen will be required to take Composition 101. And. with the major revision of the requirement will come a different type of teaching.
“The classes will be set up as writing workshops,” said Ross Winterowd. a professor of English who will advise teaching assistants on how to teach the course. “We will concentrate on process, not on product.”
As an example, Winterowd said the football team can learn only so much from watching game films, but does the majority of its learning by actual scrimmaging.
Winterowd said the teaching methods of freshman composition have been mo ving toward that goal of practical writing for the last two or three years.
“The new methods will greatly benefit the students and the humanities department,” Winterowd said. “The teaching assistants will be instructed at a seminar on how to teach the 101 course. Then, the first couple of classes they teach will be closely supervised by an experienced professor. The success of the teaching program will depend on the seminar and the training.”
The Department of English did conduct a seminar last semester, but the TAs were taking it at the same time as they were teaching and it put a hardship on them and on the students. Winterowd said. This year, the seminar will be held during the summer.
About 35 new TAs will be chosen for the fall semester, and their selections will be based on the recommendations made by their departments to the composition committee. Winterowd said.
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Daily p Trojan
University of Southern California
Volume LXXI, Number 27
Los Angeles, Californio
Friday, March 18, 1977
TA representatives vote to accept pay increase proposal, avoid strike
By John Hughes
Staff writer
Teaching assistant representatives voted Thursday to not strike and to accept the terms of a proposed pay increase schedule presented to the Council of Teaching Assistants in a memo from Zohrab A. Kaprielian, executive vice-president, and Harold von Hofe, dean of the Graduate School.
Acceptance of the terms is subject to ratification by a majority of the TAs, said Scott Brady, a teaching assistant spokesman.
Under the terms of the proposal, TA stipends will be increased by the same amount as the faculty and staff, plus the money from the establishment of a $90,000 supplemental pool — a 3% supplemental increase. The combination of the two equals
Intercultural facility plan protested
By Valerie Nelson
Assistant City Editor Marks Hall residents have filed a petition with the OfTice of Residential Life protesting the decision to make the hall an intercultural facility next year.
The petition states, “We feel we should have the right to select the roommate of our choice, whether that be American or international.”
Hans Reichl, director of the OfTice of Residential Life, contends students do have a choice, either to participate in the program or move to another residence hall. The policy change, which will take effect in September, would require students to share a room with a foreign or American student on a one-to-one basis. Fifty percent of the population will be made up of each.
Marks Hall was chosen because it has the least numberof returning students each year. About 25% of its students return.
while 50%-60% of students return to the other halls.
A breakdown in communications has been blamed by Reichl for the students’ dissatisfaction with the newly approved policy.
Students are not concerned with the hall turning intercultural, but they want to stay together. They have an affinity for the building and want to maintain their present bonds of friendship, said Charlie Chang, head resident of Trojan and Marks Hall$.
Students are planning to have a delegation of eight to 10 people meet with Reichl soon to voice their viewpoint. “They are hoping for some changes, but they (the changes) may defeat the present policy,” Chang said.
Marks Hall residents not wanting to live in the hall next year will be given first priority in choosing housing for next year, Reichl said.
Anytime a change occurs in housing procedures where a re-
sident is displaced, or forced to move, they are given priority. The same procedures took place when Harris Plaza, Birnkrant and Marks Tower turned into coeducational facilities, Reichl said.
The problem began when students at the hall were not fully informed about the policy change, which had been in the planning process for a year, Reichl said.
The Resident Halls Coord mating Council was given a chance to review the proposal a number of times. “What happened was, when the president of Marks Hall should have been there, he wasn’t,” Reichl said.
Consequently, students have felt excluded from the process. Tuesday, Jane Higa, assistant director of the OfTice of Residential Life, met with students “who are very concerned about moving out of their rooms,” she said.
“There were communication (continued on page 6)
an increase of 9% for the 1977-1978 academic year.
With this increase is the written assurance that in the following two academic years TAs will receive a total supplemental increase of 15% above that granted to faculty and staff.
This will bring the total TA increase over the next three years to 18% — the amount originally requested for this year by the TAs.
It is also stipulated that future increases in TA stipends will be directly tied to those of the faculty and staff, increasing TA stipends as faculty-staff salaries are increased.
“Although this is not what we had hoped for,” Brady said, “we felt that we had made some significant advances. “First, we got recognition of the TAs as a #ital segment of the university.
“Second, that we had gotten assurances that our stipends in the future will be treated in the same way as the faculty and staff as far as increases.
“And finally, (we received) written assurances that these inequities (between faculty and TA increases) will be made up through supplemental augmentation over the next three years.”
The vote of the council members present was 13 to 6 in favor of the terms, subject to ratification by the majority of TAs.
Arguments were raised in the meeting that the increase for next year was not enough to help those students whose sole income is their stipends.
Brady said the council had originally chosen the 18% figure, 7% less than the actual disparity between faculty and TA increases since 1970, because it was what was felt to be a reasonable increase.
“It was large enough to make a difference without unreasonably burdening the university,” Brady said.
Speaking of the problem of TAs who need a large increase, Brady said, “Clearly there will be TAs that will be forced to moonlight. It won’t eliminate the problem, but it will be reduced.”
Brady stressed that the significance of the proposed agreement was its long-range effect on future stipend increases and the bargaining powerofTAs as a group. While it does not pre-sent an immediate solution, Brady said it does offer a long-range vehicle for removing the present inequities and guaranteeing that they will not return in future years.
Present stipends range from $375 to $415 per month. With 9% increase these will riseto$409to $452. In the following two years a total of 14% will bring these to $466 to $515, not counting the faculty-staff raises which will be included.
The remaining 1%, bringing the supplemental increase to 18%, will come from benefits other than pay. One item mentioned to make up this 1% was that the university will look into the possibility of taking over a portion of the cost of medical insurance as is presently done with the faculty and staff.
If the offer is ratified by the TAs, it still must be approved by the Board of Trustees.
In February, the Finance Committee of the board budgeted a 6% salary increase and the establishment of a supplemental pool of $30,000 for TAs. This would have equalled an increase of approximately 7%.
Work by the teaching assistants to get a pay increase was begun last summer when a group of them began informally meeting in an attempt to organize. Until they formed into the present council last semester, there was no organizational representation.
LABOR ETHICS QUESTIONED
8 Trojan Barrel employees resign
■SSL-iiSoS
By Mike Simpson
Staff Writer
Eight of 12 employees at Julie’s Trojan Barrel quit Thursday, blaming the owner and general manager with unethical labor practices.
Julie Green owns the Barrel and Julie’s Restaurant. The general manager is Jack Abbott.
A letter signed by Bonnie Girard, a student and manager of the Trojan Barrel, and seven other employees, six of whom are students, cited a breakdown of communications and understanding between themselves and the employers as the main reason for the resignations.
All of the Barrel’s student employees resigned.
Girard said that only beer and wine are served at the Trojan Barrel, and when a full liquor license was obtained in January for the restaurant, all the employees questioned their employment status because they weren't experienced as professional bartenders or as cocktail waitresses.
She said continued questioning of Green and Abbott brought no commitals from them, only a response from Abbott that it was not the policy of the company to give notice to employees before they are fired. “The employees wanted time to look for other jobs if they had to,
but Jack or Julie wouldn't tell us whether we would be kept or not,” she said.
Abbott said he had not read the letter of resignation and he was not aware that anyone had quit when he was contacted Thursday afternoon. Girard said, however, that earlier that morning she had revisited the restaurant after delivering the letter of resignation and found maintenance men tending bar and Abbott waiting on tables. She said Abbott refused service to her and threatened to call the police if she stayed in the restaurant. Julie Green was out of town Thursday, unavailable for comment and, -according to Abbott, uninformed of the resignations.
Julie’s Trojan Barrel, formerly the Trojan Barrel, was bought IV2 years ago by Julie’s Inc., according to Abbott. He said the original Julie’s Restaurant has been in existence for 36 years and has long been a meeting place for administration and faculty members as well as area businessmen.
The Trojan Barrel, however, is more student oriented, he said. The obtaining ofthe full liquor license goes along with plans for refurbishing and remodeling of the Trojan Barrel, he said. “We want to turn Julie’s Trojan Barrel into a nice restaurant for students to bring dates to for a nice meal,” he said.
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